Speakers seek to inspire youths of St. Augustine to take responsibility

JOE BLACKThe Florida Times-Union

Published Sunday, January 09, 2005

click photo to enlarge

Barry Williams, a St. Augustine native and Dean of Students at Pedro Menendez High School talks about the importance of education, what the community should expect from the schools and what they have to do to be successful, during Saturday's Youth and Young Adult Empowerment forum held at the First Baptist Church in St. Augustine. Around 50 community members and youth from St. Augustine and Jacksonville participated in the day long forum which had speakers discussing what must be done to help children in the African-American community be successful.

By BOB SELF, Morris News Service Speakers at a youth forum had one message for black community members Saturday: take responsibility.

Parents need to take responsibility for their children by helping them through school and to make better decisions.

Churches need to take responsibility for bringing people together.

And, perhaps most importantly, speakers said, children have to be responsible for learning and bettering themselves.

"Too many people don't care about our children," said the Rev. Richard P. Burton, who is a NAACP national board member and Epiphany Baptist Church deacon. He moderated the forum.

"We must start caring and start working. For all of us," he said.

More than 50 people attended the forum at the First Baptist Church on St. Francis Street in St. Augustine.

Speakers discussed a myriad of topics, from education to health to spirituality, during the event that lasted from 10 a.m. until about 3 p.m.

They each made their intent clear that they wanted to reach out to younger black children and teach them how to succeed.

Too often, they said, children aren't given avenues to find answers or aren't told how to do wellfor themselves.

After calling about 20 children in the audience near the pulpit, actor Tommy Ford who played Tommy on the FOX television hit "Martin" had each of them repeat: "I am responsible for me."

Ford, an author of several children's books, continued with his speech by encouraging the children to do better and keep trying.

He spoke of growing up in South Central California and how, because of faith, he was able to better his life.

"You are beautiful, powerful and worthwhile," Ford repeated until the children joined in.

"You can do anything you put your mind to, if you try hard enough."

Earl Johnson, a Jacksonville defense attorney, said he wants to see young black children start moving away from glorifying street culture, which he says embraces avoiding formal education and violence.

He started his speech by talking about how each day he sees a line of men in green suits lined up for court appearances with a judge.

"There is a problem, street culture has become symbolic of black culture," he said.

"That needs to change."

He added: "We all need to learn to take responsibility for our community.

"That's how we're going to do better."

Burton said he expects that another youth empowerment forum will be held again soon, possibly in Jacksonville.